Time to Bail
05 Apr 2017Tagz
Been a while since my last update. A lot has happened.When I heard about the Ram Tah ruins I had to go see for myself. I know I wouldn't be the one to unlock any mystery, but I had to see it with my own eyes. This mission I'm on isn't going to be wrapped up anytime soon. I can afford to take the occasional jaunt out into the black to see the wonders. Just so long as I don't forget why I'm back in Empire space.
The first has been the plague that hit the Apathaam system. It hit hard and it hit fast with a double whammy. Seems the virus had an incubation period that varied from person to person, so you could be walking around infected for days before you showed signs. Made isolating the sick impossible. The second was that Reamy Dock's air filtration system was poorly maintained. Good enough to scrub the air clean of MOST things. But not this virus. Every time it seemed like it was beaten a new wave of infected hit.
I kept myself busy hauling in medical supplies from anywhere I could find them, delivering med data, and anything else I could do to help. I made peace with Cabwrought, so that's something. Seeing me bring in shipment of med supplies day after day managed to make him treat me like a human. Hell, once it was all over I even had a drink with him at the bar. But even if I made peace with Cabwrought, peace wasn't in Apathaam's future. But more on that in a minute.
As things were returning to normal at Reamy, I got a message from an old friend. Good old Aborg, he finally got himself a ship. I had to fly with him a while, show him the ropes all that. Didn't take long. Guy's a natural.
We ended up buying Viper IVs together and hunting some bounties in Federation space for a few days. But I needed to get back, work towards getting that Clipper. And Aborg plans on supporting Felicia Winters. Kinda hard to work together on those things. I'll see him again before too long, no doubt.
So it was back to Apathaam. And boy was I glad I got myself a fighter ship. Just about every group large enough had decided to take up arms against each other. I think it was because of the plague. Everyone looked around, saw others looking weak or maybe they needed something the other had in spades, but the tensions broke and when I got back there were multiple conflicts across the system. A few of the buddies I made with the Empire factions caught up to me in the bar and after a few rounds of the good stuff, we all thought it the best idea ever to go show those.. shit, I don't even remember who they were. Well, go teach them a lesson whoever they were. I sobered up on the flight there. Mostly. I had seen a few skirmishes before, but mostly from the sidelines. Getting into the thick of it is different. It's not like fighting pirates or hunting a bounty. Those times, you get this burst of adrenaline, and before you know even realize it, it's all over. You won or lost. This was different. The fighting outlasts the adrenaline in open space warfare. I found myself surprised at that calm collected way I hit a viper with laser fire, only to find another, then another. Came back after I think about twelve enemies shot down. We went straight back to the bar. It was a good night.
That was the real problem though. That first night was a good mix of luck and skill. Made me think I could, no should, fight again. But the next day I didn't have as much luck. Or maybe the hangover cut into the skill. Probably both. Anyhow, I got picked apart. I hit a combat zone that was wrapping up. Bad part was, it was the other side that was doing the wrapping. I made a run for it but they just kept pounding. They were targeting subsystems. Lost my drives. Managed to kick them on again, but they kept hitting. Lost the drives two more times before the canopy gave out. No drives, no engine, no weapons, no lifesupport. I prepaired to bail out when I saw them break off. Visually. Sensors were out thanks to the engine offline. I think cause I lost so many systems the ship went cold and they lost my signal. Then I saw something that sent chills down my back. I saw one of them in the distance start shooting into the debris of a downed ship. They were shooting escape pods. Its a war crime in Apathaam to shoot pods like that. They're considered prisoners of war, seeing as they're helpless and all.
I didn't have much time. Either they'd come execute me or I'd just run out of air. I made some spit-gum-and-tape repairs and rebooted. I flicked on the power and started to spool up the shift drive. The heat must have tipped them off cause I saw the three of them come about on my scanner. I jumped out of there just at the first laser blasts hit me, thanking myself for not skimping on the extra armor.
I made it to Reamy with about a minute worth of air left.
Put in for the Viper to get repaired, and went to find a hot shower and maybe a stiff drink. I needed to clear my head. Ended up getting something to eat first. That's when Officer Cabwrought found me. He let me know that about fifteen minutes after I got there, three Viper IIIs landed. The pilots were asking questions about a Commander Tagz flying a Viper IV named The Aias. Shit. They followed me. They didn't want witnesses. I told Cabwrought about what was going on, but he couldn't do anything without evidence. When I saw it happen, the ship had no power. No power, no logging. No logs, no evidence. Except my testimony. But those three don't know that. They might think I have log files, so they've come to clean up.
I need to be somewhere else for a while. Cabwrought turned out to be not such a bad guy, but I like my chances better a few dozen light years away then in his protective custody. But even if I run, I'm sure this isn't over.